Budget Vote Address By Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, MP,
Minister In The Presidency Planning, Monitoring And Evaluation;
Committee
Room E249 of the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa,
CAPE TOWN
11 MAY 2018
Honourable
Speaker
Ministers
and Deputy Ministers here present
Honourable
Chairperson and Members of the Portfolio Committee
Honourable
Members
Deputy
Chairperson and Commissioners of the National Planning Commission (NPC)
Secretary
of the National Planning Commission (NPC), Mr Tshediso Matona
Director-General
of DPME, Ms Mpumi Mpofu
Statistician
General, Mr Risenga Maluleke
Our
Distinguished Guests
Ladies
and Gentlemen
Introduction
It is my
immense honour to present the 2018/19 Budget Vote for the Department of
Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). I must express my sincere gratitude
to my predecessor, the Honourable Jeff Radebe, for establishing a solid
foundation for effective planning, monitoring and evaluation of government
programmes.
I am
tabling this budget vote at a historic moment as we mark the centenary of both
the late Mama Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu, a leader who dedicated her life to
the emancipation of women, and Tata Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the first
President of the democratic Republic of South Africa.
It is
important that as a nation we draw inspiration from the rich legacy of these stalwarts
of the liberation struggle and in their pursuit for a democratic society. In
honour of these stalwarts, let us uphold the principles, values and vision for
a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Tribute
In April,
just over a month ago we lost yet another stalwart, Nomzamo Winifred
Madikizela-Mandela who was the epitome of fortitude, courage and resilience. She
might have ceased to breathe, but her legacy remains in each and every one of
us. A rock never dies; it lives through different epochs. That is why we
maintain: “Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo!”.
Africa Month
The National Development Plan (NDP) recognises
that our developmental trajectory and prosperity is intricately intertwined
with that of the African continent. The month of May is Africa Month, and the
25th of May is Africa Day to be celebrated under the theme, “A Year
of Nelson Mandela: Building a Better Africa and a Better World”.
The NDP aspiration for
socio-economic transformation in our country also finds expression in the African
Union’s Agenda 2063, as well as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development
Goals. Similarly, our commitment is to cooperate with fellow African countries,
focus on women and the youth, harness the strength and resourcefulness of our
diverse Africa’s population, in building a united Africa that is self-sustaining,
peaceful and is recognised as an influential global player, as espoused in the
AU Agenda 2063.
Reflection on the 24 Years of Freedom
In 2012,
the people of South Africa, through Parliament, adopted the NDP as the
overarching plan for the country to guide government and society, in addressing
the challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality. In 2014, Government
translated the NDP into 14 outcomes in terms of the Medium term Expenditure
Framework (MTSF). We are guided by our conviction that democracy in our country
cannot flourish if the people remain in abject poverty, without land and
tangible prospects for a better life.
Madam Speaker, last year the DPME completed the Mid-Term
Review of performance in implementing the NDP.
The Review has highlighted several areas in which government efforts are
making good progress. However, it also pointed out many areas of
underperformance that require intervention, if we are to achieve significant progress
towards the goals of the NDP on reducing poverty, inequality and unemployment.
In
health, steady but consistent progress is being made on a range of indicators. Evidence
from Statistics South Africa points to the fact that the total Life Expectancy (LE) at
birth has increased from 59.6 years in
2009 to 64 years in 2017 (StatsSA, 2017). The
Maternal Mortality Ratio has improved
from a baseline of 310 maternal
deaths per 100 000 live births in 2009
to 135 deaths in 2016.
Infant
mortality rate improved from 42.8
deaths per 1000 live births in 2009 to
36.6 deaths in 2014, to 32.8 deaths per 1000 live births in 2017 (StatsSA, 2017). Access
to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) increased from 2.9 million in 2014, to 4.0
million people living with HIV being retained on ART by 2017.
A total
of 17 million people benefit from social grants provided by government.
Recent
figures point to a rebound in the economy’s growth rate. The country's GDP
rebounded by 2.5% in Quarter 2 (Q2) of 2017 and subsequently to 2% in Quarter 3
of 2017. Both these figures reflect improvement compared to the 0.7% decline in
Quarter 1 of 2017. More needs to be done to bring us closer to the achievement
of the NDP GDP growth and employment targets.
Other
studies highlight a mixed score-card of progress in some areas, and many
remaining challenges. The World Bank’s report on Overcoming Poverty and Inequality
in South Africa finds that although poverty substantially reduced from the
year 2000 – thanks to redistributive policies of government, it remains far too
high, and the country ranks as the most unequal, with the burden of these
social ills born mainly by blacks and rural areas.
According
to StatsSA’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey, while overall unemployment was at
26.7% in quarter 4 of 2017, for those aged 15 to 24 who were not in school, the
rate was 51%. No country can develop without employing the most abundant of its
human resources, the youth.
Equitable
distribution of land among all the people of South Africa will accelerate
spatial transformation and ensure economic participation of all the citizens.
We have not made the headway our country needs in this area if freedom and
democracy are to have any meaning for the majority of our people. We therefore
welcome the adoption of a motion by this parliament to expropriate land without
compensation.
Spatial
transformation, particularly in metropolitan municipalities, could bring about
fundamental change in the socio-economic conditions of the marginalized
communities
We are
also looking forward to the development of a National Spatial Development
Framework which is to ensure that national level policies with a spatial impact
are consistent and coherent, and that policy instruments across government
support the overall spatial transformation agenda.
Chairperson,
this frank assessment of our performance and our challenges should not detract
from the fact that South Africa is a better place to live and that the lives of
the majority of ordinary South Africans are improving since the dawn of
democracy.
However,
it is imperative that in the remainder of the years to the NDP’s vision 2030,
more work needs to be done to ensure that all the people of South Africa
equitably share the benefits of our democracy.
The Need for Better Planning, Better
Implementation and Better Outcomes
It is our
collective obligation to improve our implementation of the NDP, and to do so
urgently. In this context, the DPME has a critical role to play, to ensure that
government’s plans, programmes and services are delivered to the best possible
standards of excellence and translated into sound and achievable 5 year NDP
Implementation plan.
The implementation of the NDP 2030, has only 12
years left and over the last two, 5year Implementation Plan cycles, we will focus
on driving Implementation, defining the resources required, geographical
location, skills required and role for our social partners to implement these
plans.
To
strengthen the alignment of the programmes of different spheres and the rest of
the public sector, with the NDP. The DPME monitors the
performance of local government through the Local Government Management
Improvement Model (LGMIM) and its mandate has been expanded to include State
Owned Entities, Public Entities and Development Finance Institutions.
Current
planning in government, and planning legislation, is fragmented, which
undermines policy coherence, coordination, resulting in poor implementation and
outcomes. The NPC proposed the need for legislation which was jointly developed
with DPME, in consultation with relevant stakeholders, the Integrated Planning
Framework Bill. The Bill seeks to achieve coordinated (existing plans) and
integrate planning across all spheres of government, for more effective
implementation of the NDP. The Bill was recently approved by Cabinet for
publication in the Government Gazette for public comments. It is hoped that the
Bill will be passed during the remainder of the term of this current
Parliament.
In the
coming months, DPME will conduct a comprehensive review of government
performance in the first 25years of democracy and to enhance prioritisation and
to highlight areas for urgent intervention leading to 2030.
Evaluation, Evidence and Knowledge Systems
Last
year, a total of 59 evaluations were undertaken as part of the National
Evaluation Plan (NEP) covering over R100 billion of government expenditure. I
am proud to report that this has now risen to 67, covering over R143 billion of
government expenditure. In addition, seven provinces have provincial evaluation
plans, with 102 evaluations planned. Some 57 national and provincial
departments now have departmental evaluation plans, with over 300 additional
evaluations planned.
Over the
last year some important evaluations have been concluded and made available in
the public domain. These include the National School Nutrition Programme (where
over 9 million learners are being fed), State Response to Violence against
Women and Children, Social Housing, Upgrading of Informal Settlements, amongst
others. This year important new evaluations will be initiated, including of SOE
Governance, the Mining Charter, Non Profit Organisations and Government
relationships, SAPS Detective Services, and Scholar Transport.
Whilst
the work of DPME in evaluations is focused on programme across government. Our
intention is to allow for a more diverse evaluation system that also conducts
shorter period (few months) evaluations in crisis situations and collaborating
with all Departments on longer term Sectoral Reviews.
Coordination of Government Intervention
DPME recently
led the coordination of various Government Departments, assisting the President
in supervising the work of Government through Inter-Ministerial Committees such
as for Comprehensive Social Security - SASSA over the social grants payment and
now in the North West Province.
Realignment of Budget with NDP Priorities
Cabinet’s
decision for DPME and National Treasury to develop an annual Budget
Prioritisation Framework, (‘Mandate Paper’), a robust planning and
prioritisation tool. It is the strategic framework for decision-making by the
National Treasury on identified budget priorities, issued ahead of National
Treasury’s budget allocation process each year to advance the goals of the NDP.
Operations
Phakisa
Since 2014, DPME has been pioneering Operation Phakisa
as an innovative approach to planning and delivery involving stakeholders within
and outside government in a specific sector challenge, to jointly identify and
implement solutions.
Thus far, we
have undertaken Seven Operation Phakisa initiatives in the following sectors:
Biodiversity Economy, Chemicals and Waste Economy, Oceans Economy, Ideal Clinic
Realisation and Maintenance Programme, ICT in Education, Mining and
Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform. Since its launch in July 2014,
Operation Phakisa in the Ocean Economy has unlocked R26 billion in both public
sector and private sector investments, and a total of 6 633 jobs have been
created.
Frontline Monitoring
DPME also
gathers evidence related to the state of frontline service centres to change
the experience of our people’s access to government services. Over the past
three months, a pilot has been underway of the concept of mystery clients who
are deployed to various service points around Gauteng.
An
improvement monitoring approach has also been adopted to ensure speedy
resolution of issues identified in our communities. For instance, the Traditional
Council of Mulamule village raised the following issues with us: construction
of Mdabula – Mphambo road, establishment of satellite police station,
construction of a library, TVET College and the provision of running water. Subsequent
to the DPME interventions, the road is being constructed, the plans and budget
for the library and construction process will commence. The satellite police
station is up and running, water has been provided by Vhembe District
municipality, and a TVET college satellite campus has been constructed in Malamulele.
Our
frontline monitoring programme is also assisting in promoting public-private
partnerships to address challenges in our service delivery facility. Recently,
R2 million was raised for the refurbishment of Tshepeha Secondary School in
Grootvlei Mpumalanga through partnership with Eskom’s Grootvlei Power Station.
Presidential hotline
The Presidential
Hotline - which is now in its seventh year - continues to improve the lives of
people and provides direct access to citizens, seeking information, struggling
to resolve service delivery issues and gives insights into where there are
problems in the government system.
Some of the key
challenges of the Presidential Hotline
The Presidential
hotline has faced some challenges of non-functionality of Complaints Management
Systems at Municipal Level affecting the coordination of Presidential Hotline
case resolution. We will ensure the institutionalisation of complaints
management at municipal level to overcome this challenge.
We found
that prioritization of hotline cases by management at provincial and local
remains a challenges, that HODs and DGs must taking leadership in ensuring
resolution of hotline referred cases. There may also be a general slow pace in
government officials of resolving service delivery, which has an impact in the
number of days taken to resolve reported cases. We will ensure implementation
of disciplinary action across all spheres of government against government
officials drag their feet in dealing with plight of South African citizens.
Monitoring the Payment of Suppliers within 30
Days
Honourable
Members, the Department is also using our monitoring capability to ensure the
sustainability of Small Businesses. As the biggest client, it is imperative
that government contributes in sustaining small, medium and micro enterprises
(SMMEs). Small businesses have the potential to grow our economy and create
employment. Non-payment of suppliers negatively impacts on sustainability of
small businesses, and therefore on economic growth and employment creation. The
DPME is tasked with the responsibility to ensure that departments and state
agencies meet their obligation to pay suppliers with valid invoices within 30
days.
In the
short space of time since DPME took on this task, R327 Million has been paid to
various service providers. As at March 2017, the number of legitimate invoices
paid after 30 days were 17 113 to the value of R1.3 billion. We call on SMMEs
to report any delays that extend beyond the set 30day period to inform the
department.
Youth Development
Chairperson,
young people are our most valuable asset in society. We must equip them with
skills and knowledge so that they can actively contribute to our growth and
development as a nation. The most defining factor in our development endeavours
will be a massive skills revolution. Young people must be the primary
architects of this revolution.
We will urgently lead the work towards the
Skills Revolution to benefit our young people. We will diversify the various
initiatives to achieve a massive transformation in skills level in South Africa
including skilling through revival of old centres of education excellence
across the country, turnaround strategy for the TVET college and expanding to
network of TVETs to every municipality for and expansion to artisanship and
technical trades. Promoting University Town as skills and employment hubs,
accessing all scholarships on offer, deployment of young people in multilateral
global governance institutions to gain international experience. Driving skills
development through SETAs at a massive scale and through other Government
Institutions.
We will
continue to work closely with the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) to
augment youth development in the country. The NYDA is central in government’s
strategy of empowering young people and thus establishing a firm foundation for
the future of our country. Over the past three
years, the NYDA has introduced the grant funding programme to stimulate youth
entrepreneurship. Among the many successful stories, the NYDA funded Shadreck
Sithole and Sibusiso Malambule to nurture their business in IT Support and
network design. The NYDA will soon open fifteen (15) new branches offices with
the aim of reaching young people across the 54 districts which will be WI-FI
hotspots.
The NYDA Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu Scholarship Fund has
benefitted over one hundred (100) young people who went on to graduate from
various fields of study and will also look at assisting students who want to
pursue their post-graduate education and study at international institutions of
higher learning across the world.
The NYDA also continues to champion the National Youth
Service programme to promote social cohesion, nation building and reconstruct
society, by developing the abilities of young people through Service and
learning. The NYDA has partnered with the National Department of Arts and
Culture (DAC) to implement The Young Patriots Programme (TYPP) which has
engaged 300 participants committed to promoting social cohesion and nation
building. We urge young people across the racial lines to register for this
programme through the NYDA and urge other sectors of government to partner with
the NYDA and create opportunities for young people.
We call on the rest of society to support young
people’s innovation, ideas and create platforms for them to grow their
initiatives. We have invited some of the brightest young minds who have
conceptualized new innovations that could assist in changing our society. We
have with us Elija Djan who invented a brick, made out of paper called ‘Nubrix’
which addresses two chronic problems in South Africa: a build-up of paper waste
and a chronic housing shortage. Phumlani Ntloko has
developed a mobile Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine to test prototypes
- which can also do 3D printing - at less than a third of the cost of an
imported unit.
Budget Allocation
The DPME welcomes the
allocated budget of R927.4 million for the 2018/19 financial year, which is
expected to increase to R972.2 million and R1.032 billion respectively over the
MTEF. DPME has now an expanded organisational structure and has significantly
reduces its vacancy rate which has only been hampered by internal candidates
being most successful in filling new posts and therefore creating new
vacancies.
It is worth mentioning
that the Department has obtained clean audit opinions for the last five
financial years. The audit for the 2017/18 financial year is underway, and we
are confident that we will continue the track record of clean audits and good
governance.
As I
conclude, honourable members and fellow South Africans, I would like to remind
you that the
fight for liberation was underpinned by the need for people to be free from
oppression, hunger and starvation. It was in view of these fundamental issues
that during his address at the national Freedom Day commemoration in 1998, President
Mandela declared:
“Our freedom and our rights will only gain
their full meaning as we succeed together in overcoming the divisions and
inequalities of our past and in improving the lives of especially the poor.”
I request
that this house support the Budget 2018/19 of the Department of Planning,
Monitoring and Evaluation.
Ngiyabonga.
